Author name: Sophie Pavelle

Lauren Holford says, “It may be cold, but winter is no longer the dull and lifeless time of year it once was to me. It is a time to celebrate the unsung heroes of this unsung season.”

Samantha Suter says, “if we can’t manage our food in a way that includes wildlife, we will fail not just our natural world, but ourselves too.”

Peter Cairns says, “the greater challenge of returning this shy and elusive animal, is less about ecology and more about people’s willingness to live alongside a species that’s become forgotten on these shores.”

Craig and Ruby say, “As a child, between jumping on cow dung and tripping over brambles, long before the word ‘sustainability’ meant anything to me, I often wondered why so much was taken from the land, and very little seemed to be given back.”

Joseph Monkhouse says, “After a while, I grew restless of imagination, I wanted to hear these acoustic environments for real…I combined some self-taught techniques in music production with my ornithological expertise, in an attempt to construct past natural soundscapes that were immersive and believable.”

Lauren Cook says, “With my artist’s beret on, I see this animal as the original Capability Brown landscape artist. Just as his landscapes were designed to be seen from a painter’s viewpoint, the beaver’s aquatic habitat is one I wanted to explore with my paintbrush.”

Jack Perks says, “One of the main concerns of many anglers is that beaver dams pose a physical ‘block’ on rivers and fish migration – preventing this most ancient and fundamental movement. I once had these thoughts.”

Jamie Kingscott-Edmunds says, “Releasing any animal into the wild can be quite a task…there are plenty of long days and sleepless nights before, and after, the final release.”

Mike Blackmore says, “Yes, we know how damaging artificial impoundments are on river ecology. However, to compare concrete weirs to woody dams is to compare chalk to cheese.”

Maddie Stannard says, “Leaving the planet in a better state than we found it, both socially and environmentally, should be a goal universally shared, and by taking a leaf out of the beaver’s book, we can begin to emulate the same principles.”